It's a devil to wear Prada... Models topple off heels at show

This is one pair of heels that should come with a safety warning. In scenes reminiscent of Naomi Campbell's infamous 1993 catwalk tumble, not one, but two Prada models tripped over in their shoes in Milan yesterday.

Onlookers, including American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, watched in horror as the girls lost their balance in the towering snakeskin platform sandals.

They even had to be helped to their feet by members of the audience during the Italian designer's ready-to-wear spring/summer show for Milan Fashion Week.

Despite the tumbles though, the show went down a storm, with the collection receiving a standing ovation.

Mannequin down: Six inch platform shoes on the Prada catwalk get the better of this model

If Miuccia Prada was a fish, she would be a salmon, swimming upstream. So against the tide of fashion is Mrs Prada that whatever is currently in vogue, you can say with some certainty that she will produce its opposite.

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... but the inevitable happens and she tumbles to the ground. Right, the offending shoes are removed

This show turned its back on this season’s embellished, highly decorated look for something simpler and pared back. The first clue came from the catwalk, which meandered like a river and was painted with fish similar to ancient cave drawings. The second clue came from the models’ skin, slicked with water as though they had just risen from the sea.

All the clothes were tied in rudimentary fashion, as though they hailed from an era beforezips and hooks had been invented. Calf-length pencil skirts came with elasticated waists or adrawstring.

Shrunken jackets had no fasteners except a tie at the neck; dresses had wide neck apertures with a bow at the side. Open backs on fine gauge cashmere jumpers were tied with cotton strings like hospital gowns.

Metal seams kept fabrics stiffly away from the body, while hospital gown-style ties held clothes together

The hospital theme was echoed by the little socks worn under each vertiginous snakeskin stiletto sandal, not dissimilar to those found on surgeons in an operating theatre. Sadly, it was those slippery socks that made walking so tricky.

Most fabrics were self-coloured. But their plainness belied their technical wizardry, for Prada explained backstage that many designs incorporated metal seams allowing the pencil skirts and shrunken jackets to sit stiffly away from the body, and also lent the fabrics a crumpled look.